Transcripts For SFGTV MTA Board Of Directors 20240712

Watching this meeting via sfg tv who wish to address the board call 8888086929 and press 9961164. All right. We will wait a moment to see if there are members of the public who wish to address the board with respect to the amended minutes of may 19. Director borden, put yourself on mute. All right. Moderator is telling us there are no callers. Seeing of no callers s the floor closed officially . Yes, madam chair t moderator will close Public Comment for the minutes. And there is still a roll call vote on the minutes . A yes, madam chair. Director borden. Aye. Director brinkman . Dr. Brinkman, unmute. Aye. Dr. Eaken . Aye. Heminger. And that is approved by unanimous approval. Item 5, communication. Before i get into the extensive directions here, i just wanted to say a few words because we are coming together in a tumultuous time in our city, our state, our country. And we are seeing ravage of a legacy of systemic racism that has been ignored and been overlooked for long period of time. And with that, there is so much rage with so many people and rightfully so and so much that is unjust and for whatever reason it seems in our society that for whatever reason without bloodshed, we dont move forward. We are meeting on blackout tuesday. The meeting was planned in advance. Obviously as a Public Transit agency, our top imperative is Economic Opportunity for all. Public transit is the engine for people to get to jobs and have opportunity. And for too long systemically the system has been designed to not go to place where is people of color live or displace people from the places where Public Transit is, and so i just want you all to know as we stand here today, we stand in solidarity with everyone who is standing up against racial injustice. We are as an Agency Working on those issues. I want to thank our director and all the work that hes done with the staff internally to work on the issues that we as an agency need to improve on, to grow for our tremendous staff and the people that work for us. And for the public that we serve. I know t is been a difficult time for our drivers and all of our teams who are out there in a difficult place where they are struggling and suffering but still continuing to work, and at time where is we are still all under sheltering in place for a disease that is also ravaging the same communities that are being killed on the street. I just wanted to acknowledge that and say that and say that dedicate this meeting and our efforts to be a more just agency and a more just society. And i just want people to know that without the work throughout the work we will be looking through the equity lens and as a society ewith must do better. The system was set up to oppress people and way to create a new system is to tear down the one we have and make it better. So that has to happen. We have to pull apart assumptions that we have about how things should work and look at who created those systems and why they put them in place to make sure that were doing the work we need to do. I just wanted to say that. Its a difficult time for many of us. And i think we all just want to figure out a way to see a path forward where were making meaningful strides to make our Community Better and stronger and make everyone that is participating. So with that, i will turn to our actual way that people can participate in the meeting. And based upon our rules. So due to the covid19 Health Emergency this, meeting is being held virtually and all members and staff participating via web conference. To ensure the safety or the board of director, staff, and members of the public. In our published notice and we ask the public to participate by leaving voicemail messages and we have received and appreciated the comments prior to meeting. Thank you for honoring our request. We continue to urge the public to write to the board, call us at 4156464470 and that is not the number for this meeting so that is in advance. While this Technology Allows us to hold meetings via tele conference, there may be gaps and silence as the staff is transitions between the technology and speakers. Please know we are doing the best that we can to ask for your understanding and patience. If you have not already done so, please put yourself on mute. Lastly, i want to thank all the people who have been working hard to make this meeting possible and put a lot of Work Together and the board very much appreciates that. So with that, the Commission Secretary will give her report and a special accommodation request for a Public Comment. So this meeting is being televised by sfg tv. For those of you watching the live stream, please be aware there is a time lag between the actual meeting and what members of the public are seeing on sfg tv. If you are watching via sfg tv and wish to comment on a particular item, please call the phone line when the item is being called. For members of the public who wish to make Public Comment not on the agenda, the phone number is 8888086929. The access code is 9961164. Please make sure that you are in a quiet location. Turn off any tvs or raid owes. And if you are Live Streaming the meeting via sfgtv, please mute the sound. That will reduce any reverberations so the board can hear you. At the appropriate time, the chair will ask for the phone lines to be opened. If you wish to comment on the particular item, youre on the phone line and you will be prompted to press 1, 0. I will add you to the speaker line. And the auto prompt will say the callers are entering the question and answer time. But this is the Public Comment period. You will be queued up in the orreder in which you pressed 1, 0. And there will be an automated voice that will tell you when it is your turn to speak. When your phone has been unmuted by the system, you will hear us ask you to state your name and to make your comments. I will start your two minutes when you begin talking. I will give you a 30 second warning when you have 30 seconds remaining, and when your time is up, i will say thank you, next caller please. And at that point the moderator will automatically put the speaker back on mute. I will repeat these instructions for how to make Public Comment as i am aware some members of the public may join the meeting after i said this and may not have heard this information. So madam chair, you asked the phone line to be opened up as there was a request yesterday from a member of the public who wished an accommodation. Yes, please. All right. If the moderator can unmute the phone line for the member of the public. Do we have our commenter online . Hold on a moment. The moderator will let us know. All right. So madam chair, just for the members of the public, this is an opportunity for the one member of the public who requested an accommodation and this is not for general Public Comment on matters not on the agenda. So first caller please. Caller, give us your name and we will start your two minutes. All right. Speaker, if you could please give us your name and we will start your two minutes. Hi. I am zachary carnasis and i have a coup of notes to say about the way meetings are being conducted. I appreciate sfmta board granting me to leave Public Comment now. It is my understanding that Public Comment cans be made anonymously and that is not been made clear to in the process of these meetings or in the introductions to the meetings. I ams a highly disturbed that there is pressure being put on the public to submit questions and comments ahead of the meetings assuming that they will be even read or listened to at all as that often times is not the case. And also, one of the reasons that its beneficial to have Public Meetings is so the public can engage with the public and we can be assured you are hearing what we say and speaking is also different than a typed email. Also, there is different accessibility needs for different people. So i really just want to strongly encourage that the board and the local government encourages Public Participation as close to the way it was done before covid19 pandemic. Additionally, i want to point out that the 88 grievance procedure is really broken for people with disabilities. We are bullied and harassed in these proceedings and they do not focus on 88 issues as a whole but focus only on driver discipline, individual driver discipline. They dont look at systemic problems with the sfmta stability structure. 30 seconds. I ask that you penalize the drivers and which solves nothing and that sfmta focus on driver education and driving trainings and they are supposed to be giving to drivers already and have not been doing. Again, punishing drivers and harming people and individual basis is not how you solve accessibility problems with transportation, and i have been begging the board to fix their a. D. A. Procedure for a long time now. I havent spoke to the board since october. Time. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you. All right. So other callers, madam chair, we can close the phone line. Public comment is closed. We will have the regular Public Comment in a bit. That was a special accommodation. Thank you. Number six is introduction of new or Unfinished Business by board members. A directors, do we have any new or Unfinished Business . No, appearing to be none. There a citizens we can move to item 7. An item 7, directors report. Sorry. Item 7 is the directors report. Great. Director tumlin. I dont think we should be in question and answer mode. We are this directors report right now. We should close i dont know if a question i dont know if that matters anyway. Okay. Okay. So as all of you know, this has been an intense couple of weeks, so i apologize in advance at my directors report will run long. Theres been a lot going on. This should not need saying that public streets and Public Transit are for everyone equally. But for ages, transportaio vide many africanamericans killed by agents of government for simple infractions or no reason at all, no reason certainly that i as a welldressed white person would even be arrested for let alone executed. George floyds murder is acutely dehumanizing. We at the sfmta firmly support the sacred right of public protest on our public rights of land in any democracy, and unlike other transit agencies, we have continued Many Services and service all through the night of each protest, rerouting around the protest areas in order make sure that our passengers who are essential workers as well as people attending the protest are kept safe along with our operators. Two days ago i learned from social media that our buss are being used to transport Police Officers. This is apparently something that the agency has been doing for many years. I quickly confirmed that our buses were not being used to transport detainees. And this created obviously a conundrum for us and so i reached out for advice. I talked to people of color throughout the agency, on our board, with our labor union leadership, and asked questions about can an agency committed to social justice also provide mobility for Police Officers during National Protest against police abuse of power. Their advice like my own thinking was also deeply conflicted, but also in the end, fairly clear. Over the last two months our Bus Operators have experienced a pretty significant increase in assaults and why they are all horrified about the abuse of police nationally, they are independent on local Police Officers to protect their safety. We are dependent on the officers of the San Francisco Police Department for protection just as all people should be. So as i work to try to reform the horrific history of my own industry, i need to honor sfpd bill scotts leadership towards necessary structural change within his. We are a City Department just like sfpd and sfpd officers are our colleagues. We collaborate with them every day on Traffic Safety and operator safety. But at the same time we also have to acknowledge and own the emotional impact of our riders seeing such visible partnership between the police and Public Transit. Police for many people being a symbol of ongoing oppression and Public Transit which is a place where Everyone Needs to feel safe and protected and comfortable. So i am antiPolice Brutality and also at the same time not against the officers of the police who do seek to protect the vulnerable and regress Police Racism and cruelty. So this is one of the many challenges i get to face as a bureaucrat, and the only way i can do it is with stability, continuing to seek advice throughout the agency and the public about how to proceed, how to thread this needle, and how to at the same time keep trying to bend my own agency toward justice and while righting past harms. So that is a lot to say. I also need to cover the more cotillian work of our agency. I am continuing to do the hard work of internal change around ensuring that people of color within the agency are respected and heard, and that means continuing to advance all the social equity work that we have been doing in our external work but particularly leading toward the Racial Equity action plan that is due to the city administrator and Mayors Office that is here to require ongoing trainings that we continue to do and even despite the covid process. I also need to talk about safety. So we had another fatality in this last week. A cyclist was riding on frederick street. A motorist opened a car door. The cyclist as a result of that ended up being pushed into the street and was run over and killed by a second motorist. Dooring is a not unheard of form of violence and death against people on bicycles in San Francisco, and so, of course, the Team Immediately went out within 24 hours to do a Quick Response and come up with recommendations about quick changes we can make to frederick street, but also more importantly stepping up the Citywide Campaign against dooring and training tourists to look over their Left Shoulder before opening the door. We will be providing more detail on that in the coming weeks, and well be speaking to that as we talk about our Recovery Plan as well. Some other work we are doing, we are, as owe know, most of the construction was shut down during the shelter in place order and we are starting work again on transit on 4th street and stepping up on work that we have cancelled during the covid work and completing the protected bike ways on seventh street and also struggtology deal with how readdress our own tenants that is a financial crisis of the fallout of the covid crisis. There was a chronicle headline that was incorrect about our rent and immediately after the shelter in place orred we are a threemonth rent fore bear rans for all of the tenants. We are now working on an extension to that and also a forgiveness plan because it is essential for us to maintain the viability of our tenants. It is not in our economic interest as a landlord to have a retail space that is vacant and is certainly not in our interest as an entity that is dependent upon San Francisco tax dollars for financial survival and we need to do everything we can to support our small businesses. Finally, i want to point out it is june 2, the second day of pride month. Unfortunately this year the 50th anniversary of the pride parade will be cancelled in the physical form but moving online. We are working in many ways to continue to celebrate pride both as a city wide event and also for our own lgbtq employees. And finally, i would like to point out that pride, that pride is a celebration of deep cultural change. Cultural change that happened historically as a result of the cafeteria riots in 1966, and the stonewall riots of 1969. Two events in which transgender people fought back against Police Brutality and ended up creating what would be a long process, but process that is necessary and arises out of violent protest. The San Francisco streetcar operator strike of 1907 is one of the pivotal events and one. More volatile events in labor history and resulted in the vote to create the first mus any mali owned and operated and the event that we should be very proud of and also understand the very difficult history that positive Democratic Change toward justice arises from. With that i will turn it back over to the chair. Thank you, director. I know there are some questions. Director heminger . Thank you, madam chair. I wanted to commend mr. Tumlin on the introductory marks. Jeff, i think you are striking the right tone t right balance, the right level of empathy. And i will just say we made a good hire. Thank you. Any other commissioners have questions for the director . Director eaken . Thank you so much. Just building on chair bordens meeting at the top, and i was going to ask and it seems like you anticipated the request. I was going to ask for an update at a future meeting on the new office of race equity and inclusion and what is the organization and the update on the Racial Equity action plan. It sounds like that is on your mind, but i wanted to explicitly express that. We would be happy to bring dante king who leads the work to present to you all. U an any other directors have additional comments . I will say you mention we lost another life on our streets and i just think the reason that we lose cyclists and Police Officers and is not racially motivated and there is an indifference to something that is not your circumstance that you dont seem to care about. I think we have to get beyond that. It cant be, well, it wasnt me, not my family, not my race, not my people. We are all everyones people and we should be alarmed at the loss of any life at all times. It never should be okay and we shouldnt always ask for bicycle improvements and that is thelessson to learn about all this. And all in our space and its not my issue and not my problem and things will get better. And with that, are there any Public Commenters on the directors report . If the moderator could open the phone line for Public Comment. Your concerns is now in question and answer mode. And this is for those members watching via sfg tv and twoish address on comments on topics discussed by the director to address the board on this topic at 8888086 929 9961164 finally 1,0. The moderator will let us know when there are members of the public on who wish to address. All right. We have five callers. All right. So first caller, please give us your name. All right. We have more. The first speaker. Please give us your name or if you wish to remain anonymous, please start speaking and we will start the clock when you start speaking. First caller. Can you hear me now . Yes. Can you hear me now . Yes. It is david pillpal in reference to comment from director tumlin and i was out the other night before the curfew was announced or took effect and there was an instruction to operators on the streets to pull in from the inner terminal which caused me and other people to be just left stranded downtown. There have also been reroutes the last few nights that i am aware of related to incidents on the street. I was just asking in anticipation of other issues Going Forward that somebody be at the Transportation Management center overnight so that when we reroutes are necessary, that theyre able to put out via whatever communication including the next meeting signs at shelters and information for passengers. I am sure there were passengers who were stranded on Market Street for hours with no Service Available and no information about where to go and where coaches were stopping. Ill leave it at that on the directors report. Thanks. I have been paying careful attention to what the director is saying. The director may think he knows or the a ph. D. On transportation issues, but the objective opinion is that the director and the director that we have. And the audacity, one of your commissioners and i think i know him, but butting in and saying that we made a good decision with the hire. That is for the people to say, not for you to say. As far as we from observation things are going downhill. He has been around and i have been around, and he said some statements and is not that they are just making some general statements, but muny is failing us each and every day. And its more because of the pandemic, but i take Public Transportation so i know what i am talking about. So stop backing up behind when you are given an opportunity to speak and do your job. Do your job. If you find it is too hot in the kitchen, then maybe you should step out. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker please. The next speaker. Give us your name or when you start speaking, we will start your timer. Two minutes. Hi. I am zach carnasis and i appreciate director tumlins report and the words that he shared. They all sound very nice, and i know he is new to the this position and i hope there can be some action behind those words because sfmta has been a leader in discrimination against those with disabilities and theres an issue where they are deleting public video records in 72 hours, especially when they seem to happen to contain access violations. And if you are trying to protect drivers from attacks, you need to stop deleting public video records and public surveillance records. That is one of the first thins you can do and actually just maybe hold on to public video records a little longer than 72 hours because that is crazy. Also, sfmta has a long im sorry, the police riding the bus has been a longstanding thing. I am really concerned to hear that the director is just finding that out now and thats been happening for many, many years. I want to encourage everyone on the board as soon as the pan dem sick a cleared away to as soon as the pandemic is cleared away. I know a lot of communication and people making six figure salaries do not ride the bus because they dont feel they have to and that puts you out of touch with what the public experiences in the daytoday. I want to encourage that. There is a longstanding problem of disproportionately targeting communities of color. The fair Vision Police and the regular sfpd are routinely stationed on buss that go to neighborhoods 30 seconds. Such as the 24 liner to 14 line. And that is racism, folk. That is clearcut racism. It happens all the time from sfmta. And i hope this director can put actions behind the words and really stop that kind of thing from happening. And i just want to encourage people to also put some of those financial points where your concerns are and help out drivers who are only making 26 an hour instead of paying six figure salaries. Time. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Next speaker, if you could just give us your name or Start Talking and your two minutes will start. Good afternoon, director tumlin and sfmta directors. First off, i want to thank you for your leadership to continue to keep our city moving safely during this very challenging time. Black lives matter. Brown lives matter. And design matters. Our family lives our muni bus drivers and the San Francisco bus drivers who were risking their lives before covid19. And we stand with the bus drivers in peace and solidarity and send our compassion, lover, and light to them on their journey. I am a member of the sf bay area family for safe streets and it was founded four years ago and of families of loved ones who have been cleared or severely injured by preventible crashes on the streets of San Francisco. I am a 15year district five San Francisco San Francisco resident a female, athlete, artist, community gardener, dance e and San Francisco United Public School mom. And a heart of gold and a trusting, adventurous soul. I am a survivor of San Francisco traffic violence. I am calling to ask sfmta to act urgently to prevent a surge in severe and fatal s recommendation to make everyone safer on our streets now. These are fast, affordable, and proven ways to reduce the traffic crashes at intersections and to start to address the dangerous speeds. We cannot allow the cities to be an average of 30 people are killed and nearly 600 people severely injured in traffic crashes each year. Each year, year over year. There is no time to waste for ample, feasible, easy to implement and jody of sf walk is a brilliant leader. Time. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Just for members of the public who are on here who want to talk about safety on the streets, that is actually item 11. Speaker hi, thank you. Go ahead. Sure. Thank you. I am cliff barger and first, i want to thank you, all, for all of your hard work during the difficult time, particularly director tumlin and all the staff members. I was going to call and bring up the difficulties in keeping the bike lanes clear on the western side of the city from cars, but after this weekend, it feels like as important as that is, its just pales in comparison to what is going on across the country. I can aappreciate that director tumlin and muni workers who rely on services provieded by sf tv, but i think its tough for a lot of people to see muni transporting Police Officers to break up peaceful protests and i hope that director tumlin can continue to seek a better balance in how muni facilitates sfpd activities. I want to thank you for continuing to run service during the curfew and i know none of you control this, but i am wondering why despite muni continuing to run bus service, san trans has the decided they dont need to serve bus drivers. I dont know if that is something that m. T. A. Can communicate with san trans about, but i was disapointed they dont follow your good example. 30 second. An i think that is all ive got right now. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Next speaker, please. Give us your name and we will start your tame. Good afternoon. This is barry, toronto. I appreciate jeffrey tumlins kind words and expressing his dilemma he had regarding transporting detainees or transporting Police Officers regarding Police Brutality. I saw an item online that said a bus driver refused to actually transport these people. I suggest that you have a meeting with the police brass and express your dilemma and also bring with you the head of the muni drivers union. The next issue is i worked both saturday and sunday as a taxi driver. It was very stressful. More so on sunday than saturday because they also needed cabs at the airport and i ended up serving people who got stranded because the buses had stopped running in certain areas. And also uber and lyft have stopped running as well. So i think i probably got a few extra customers. A lot of drivers are refraining from being out there for health and safety reasons 30 second. So i want to say regarding the bicyclist, i am horrified to hear this happens and i learned to always look before opening the door all the way. The drivers side door. However, theres a problem with a lot of bicyclists ignoring Traffic Signals and stop signs and thinking they are without impunity. So i am really concerned that the safety issue fall on the bicyclists as well. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. You have 5 questions remaining. Speaker e give us your name and we will start your time. I do not own a car and the primary means of transportation is my bike and my dogs primary mode of transportation is via bike. Before pandemic i commuted by bicycle to selma and ever day i had at least two close calls on the commute. I fear in the covid19 world with more folk taking transit and cars and the street wills become less safe. I would like to thank your leadership for keeping the streets moving safely and the safe Streets Initiative in particular is a resident and i hope that the program is made more permanent. And to ask urgently to prevent that surge and fatal traffic and support walk sf to make everyones streets safer now. The recommendations and implement the changes by the end of the year. For the record for members of the public, safer streets and the transportation Recovery Plan is an item on the agenda, item 11, and so people who wish to address the board on the safe Streets Program or making changes in the future should address the board on item 11. Next speaker if you are unmuted. Give us your name and we will start your two minutes. This is martin. Thank you. Go ahead. And thank you. And i was calling originally to support the safe streets network seeing rolled out during the covid19 pandemic and the states protected and that we can do that today. And we should do that today because too many have died on our streets and that is unacceptable and will neat to stop now and the safe ip infrastructure in a quick and swift manner. But given the events of the last couple of days, i also wanted to call in to condemn the use of muni by Police Officers for the transportation and Police Officers that are controlling our right to protest. And no way am i saying that i dont believe that cops should be able to use the bus as private citizens but black and brown communities are terrorized enough by the cops. We dont need them to be using the Public Infrastructure to terrorize them more during the time when we are protesting police violence. Cops very will a bloated budget and their own vehicles. We absolutely do not need them to be using our buses. If anything, it is a symbol that sfmta muni is not taking the plight of black and brown americans seriously at this time. So please use the public vehicles to suppress freedom of speech and right to protest 30 second. And make black and brown people afraid to use muni. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Next speaker. I am calling in today to talk about the use of buses to transport police. I strongly oppose this. The police have no reason to take that away to take resources from what could be essential workers and who need to voice frustrations with the government and giving them to the exact problem they are protesting against. So it needs to end and we cant keep transporting police on the Public Transportation system and also right now is the perfect time and many said and. And why are we building more protected bike lanes and those areas and have an opportunity. Thank you. Next speaker. Give us your name, sir. On friday at the Blue Ribbon Panel for transit recovery, the director made a comment about wanting state legislation to streamline the creation and i understand we will hear more about that in item 11 and look forward to more elab racings on that because transited a voe t kas around the bay area are eager to support such an effort. Thank you. To advocate around the bay area. You have three questions remaining. So before the next speaker, member who is wish to address on topics that were addressed by director tumlin, please call 8888086929. The code and my name is marilyn and i am an 82yearold who walks to the ocean and walk to my doctors report and walking is a major part of my life. And recently it has become the most frightening part of my life. Now that vehicle traffic is so much more since people are no longer using Public Transportation, more people are walking and walking and walk San Francisco has provided direction to you and the directors that i hope you Pay Attention to. And the last years of my life, i hope to feel i can still walk this beloved city. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Go ahead when you are ready. Please give us your name and go ahead. Good afternoon. I am a member of walk San Francisco and calling to talk about the issue of safe street which is many people have addressed. I would like to thank the director for his comments on the other issues that are really in the forefront of our consciousness now, but safe streets effect everybody regardless of race. As you have all heard and know, theres been a lot of traffic, pedestrian collisions and in San Francisco and some improvements have been made but i am very krnt about what will happen as the city begins to open up again and more and more people are coming back to work and people are not ready to get back to Public Transportation. I am not ready to get back on Public Transportation. I hope that you will do everything that you can following the recommendation by walk San Francisco to help keep our city and our treats safe for people of any race walking in any age and 30 seconds. San francisco is a beautiful city. Comments about slow streets and Transportation Plan is item number 11 on the agenda. And it would be appropriate for members of the public to wait to address the board when we get to that item. Thank you for the reminder. Next speaker please. Give us your name and we will start your time when you begin talking. Thank you for your input. A next speaker please. Good afternoon. Can you hear me . Yes. I circulated a couple of images to the board yesterday and i know the public cant see this, but the first image that i circulated and am referring to the air pollution map and with the dense test Residential Districts and the tenderloin and the northern part of the mission and the Residential District and soma, and these are extremely dense areas with over 20 to 30,000 persons per square mile. Theyre also the model of intensity. In other words, mixed use with local services and shops that people can walk and bicycle to. Despite that, if you look at this map, they are disproportionately exposed to particulate matter, traffic noise and all myriad of the private automobiles and the private entities. Yes . You have 20 seconds left to address the board. Oi kay. So i wanted to bring this social equity to what we are thinking about how to move forward of the impacts of the private automobility. Thank you for your conversation. You have zero questions remaining. With no one left on the line, we will move on from the makers report and there is no citizens advisory count today. Item nine is general Public Comment to address within the jurisdiction of the sfmta members and not on todays agenda. If the moderator can open the phone line. The transportation Recovery Plan is item 1 1 and we will have have a full presentation and opportunity to ask questions at that time on that item and from the questions and issues that you have. Madam chair f i can the transportation Recovery Plan does include Transit Service, street Recovery Planning, support for neighborhood commercial districts, bike lanes, managing land for travel. So this is only for matters that are not on todays agenda. If the moderator could let us know. And members of the public who are watching the meeting by sfgtv if you wish to address the board on matters within the jurisdiction of the board but not on todays calendar, 8888086929 and then 9961164, and finally, 1, 0. We hear that are there callers on the line . We can take the first caller, please. We will set your time at two minutes when you Start Talking. Please give us your name. You have nine questions remaining. Go ahead. First speaker please. Hello. Hello. This is Hayden Miller calling in. I just wanted to talk about recently some operators have taken it upon themselves to block off the front of the coach which is a move in other agencies like a. C. Transit and san trans have taken and they have been vizable in protecting the health and safety i will blocking off the front of the coach to passengers. Many of the passengers are ill and not wearing a mask. And there is little enforcement to protect the operator and other essential worker passenger safety. So we should not be disciplining the operators who are protecting their safety. It is important that we do serve our patrons with disabilities, but that should not have to comprise our operator safety. We can still let the passengers with disabilities on through the front of the bus, but that doesnt mean that everybody should sit up there and stand next to the operators and pay the cash fare. This needs to top and put the operators first and take care of the operators and the families and the essential workers who are riding the buses. Thank you. That a keep point of center by sfmta where were dealing with the important issues at hand of the unfortunate, very unfortunate pandemic and the racial cause and effect of Police Brutality and other points dont takeaway from the importance of Transportation Safety in the streets of San Francisco as a survivor, i ask you to focus on this right now. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, well start your time when give us your name and you Start Talking. Next speaker. Speakers are told when their microphone is unmuted. Please, begin talking. Thank you all for directors for hearing us and leaving us to these challenging times. My name is alley geller. The advocates and today already and each of these people have been impacted by traffic violence, either with victims themselves or the parent or child who is lost a loved one and they have a career and i am come and everyone has losses is preventable. These crashes were due to speed and reckless distracted driving behavior and we see it everyday and increasingly on our streets. And they had zero pedestrian last year. There is no reason why San Francisco, with our tremendous resources cannot be among these Success Stories and every reason why we must. I support San Franciscos recommendations for affordable crashes and intersections and address dangerous speeds. Thank you so much. Thank you. Intention speaker. Give us your name and well start your time when you Start Talking. If people are on the line you have nine questions remaining. People on the line at the request of Bike Coalition or walk sf, this is not the time to address the board. The time to address the board would be under item 11 not on general Public Comment. Next speaker, please give us your name and well start your time. Can you hear me now . Yes. Its david fillpaw. So, not regarding the recovery but regarding Current Operations and the budget, i continue to be concerned about the stops on Market Street for the l, the n and the t, which during the day, only stop at the former metro stations and not the other stops on market and during the l period stop at all the stops on Market Street. Its confusing and although staff has attempted to provide signage and provide some communications with the operators, its very confusing to the public, particularly during the overlap period about 10 00 when there are both daytime buses out and owl buses and it forces people, in fact, to take a local 9 san bruno from a stop at say first street to Second Street to then get off and get on again to catch an l an n or a t. The t is partially substituting for the f line and yet serves no stops between van he is and church and church and castro. I encourage staff to stop all the buses on Market Street at all of the regular islands all daylong. Its a lot simpler, period. Regarding the budget, it would be helpful to brief the board and to update the public on the status of the budget and particularly to the exten the ee assumptions that underline the budget approval may or may not still be in effect. So i would hope you would have a budget update as soon as possible at a future meeting, thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. You have eight questions remaining. Next speak remover please. Hi, my name is adam and im a residents of district 6 at the palms off of fourth and bryant. I specifically wanted to ask you to have the discussion about calender items, 10. 3 and expanding the design and budget for the subway project. The reason being is when we get to that item, the consent calender, please address the board when that item is open for public public. Ive taken note you wish to sever it. This is general Public Comment on a matter not on the agenda. Just wanted to make sure it was severed before we hop into that. Thank you so much. Our next speaker, please. The next speaker can give us your name and well start your time. Next speaker, please. You have seven questions remaining. Next speaker, please go ahead. This is roger. Roger. This is local 258. It is designated under article 6 section 6. 3 where it states a minimum of eight hours annually professional Customer Service training shall be provided to all operators so that person is right in terms of Customer Service training, we are definitely working with mta in terms of providing the training so that operators can get a better understanding of how to deal with passengers whether theyre challenged passengers, mentally disabled at risk or whatever the case may be so were working with the agents in terms of that and in in terms of deleting after 62 hours its interesting because we need to make sure the videos are not being deleted after 72 hours. Its a issue of mine in regards fact first policy and program and id like everybody to know that mayor is asking for budget cuts, et cetera, and cuts are always at the bottom and i would like everybody to know make it public and public declaration that i would be cutting my salary by 10 if people in the agency would take a personal 10 pay cut reduction in order to help continue to fund the back First Program so that is still out there on the table for the agents to consider. Thank you. Time. Thank you, for your leadership. I have six questions remaining. Next speaker, give us your name or Start Talking and well start your two minutes. Hello, i wanted to comment on the plan for a street published lately many of theres a survey online that is very summary and it asks whether you like the plan or not. I mostly approve the changes in this plan, certainly the Pedestrian Safety changes and its always nice to see a new bike lane proposed. Its not that nice to see a door zone bike lane proposed for alamaney its a burden bike lane but does not have protection even though theres parking on the street and i have not seen the plans so i dont know how much is available but i would strongly urge smfta to build a parking bike lanes where possible and avoid building doors on bike lanes unless theres no other options. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Go ahead. Give us your name and start speaking and well start your time. Are there other speakers on the line. Are there any additional speakers on the line . Hold on madam, chair. Im checking with the moderator. No problem. We seem to have a technical difficulty at the moment. If we can just try to work that out. You have five questions remaining. So next speaker, give us your name. Hello, my name is Richard Rossman and i live in the Outer Richmond off full ton street and i saw on our next neighbor a lady with her baby almost got hit by a car. Its the International Speed way and with more cars driving there needs to be immediate plans to slow cars down. I know Sarah Jones Group is coming up with a plan but that is taken so long. We need to maybe under the declare emergency we can reduce the traffic to 25 Miles Per Hour or put something or speed bumps. You need to slow the traffic down. A couple of years ago, i asked the staff to put up those orange construction signs that says slow down or construction ahead or lane closed. And they wouldnt do it and the reason why they said, oh, we dont have the money. If i was that persons boss he would be looking for another job. Theres been other accidents on fulton street. It took 10 years to fix one accident and it needs to be done right away while cars are coming on the street. The police wont give tickets anymore. My name is herbert winier and i want to raise concerns about the nine san bruno. About a week and a half ago, i attempted to take a nine to costco. It was packed. It was crowded. Its in violation of the pandemic regulations. Basically, more service is needed on that line. Theres no service to the Marina District and all lines have been eliminated and mta sounds for equity. It should. Its service for everyone and that includes black and brown people as well and it includes everybody. If the police and fire operators are favoring one group over another, probably half the city would burn down. And there would be more crime in the city and that should be the mission of mta and the mission. Thank you. So, next speaker. You have four questions remaining. All right, please give us your name or Start Talking. They are taking risk by doing it and a bicyclist and a car running the lights. It does not come out to a very happy situation. Its really disgusting. Regarding i want to say whoever sent out an email sunday afternoon, informing the taxi industry that we are an essential service and that the curfew does not apply to us and it was an important aspect. There was a heavy demand on saturday night and particularly on sunday for taxi service. And so, it was and i had to deal with the fact that i had several non pays. So, because we have to pick up it was a productive night. Regarding slow streets. We have a problem with not identifying the slow streets that the taxi drivers maybe someone in the Taxi Division so we dont have to come upon them and figure something out out. And last, i want to mention that without fill owe crean a there theres a problem of leadership at the Taxi Division. I sent an email and i c ced jeff tumlin because theyre not addressing it. Theyre expecting us to have our own printers and scanners regarding documents we need regarding our permits and other forms we have to fill out. I want to let you know, we have problems with this staff at the you have three questions remaining. So next speaker go ahead, sir. Good afternoon, my name is jason henderson. I want to talk about the market noctavia plan and the hub. Jeffrey tomlin that when you worked with Nelson Nygard you conducted the traffic stops. One of the problem is its a good plan. The Planning Department and sfmta didnt seem to coordinate and you know, for example, it took us 10 years to finally get the sfmta to address page street and theres a number of other issues within that plan that have yet to be adequately addresses and theres t and c and ecommerce delivery. Now we have the hub coming at us. The Planning Commission approved the hub but there was no discussion about what the situation is with trans capacity or what the reality is on the ground and this was approved last week. This plan has approved thousands of sparking spaces. These havent been built yet but theyve been approved and there are 500 more coming, just in that tight geography. The hub also has a significant loading deficit that tnc and ecommerce are going to overwhelm and sat right the streets in the hub district. And it feels the sfmta is this bystander to something going on. What i would request is the sfmta talk to the board of supervisors now, this summer, because this has to go to the board of supervisors sometime this summer and we need to have some real clarity and also i want to suggest that you look at a bicycle district to address that the reality is that theres a transit capacity issue because we cannot and we really need to recalibrate and mta and should be at the center of that. You have two questions remaining. Good afternoon, my name is jody ma der as and im the executive director of walk San Francisco. I want to thank you for the work youve been doing creating work and people work space and prioritizing clean transit. I am sad by the current state of our country and and we heard from another resident and members to take time out of the day to ask the sfmta to not lose sight of vision zero. It advises employers to encourage employees to take vehicles and we as a city are trying to encourage more people to see and we reel feel we need to do everything we can to protect the most vulnerable through low cost tools, smart policies and technologies that we have at our disposal. For example, we have programs that are currently over 500 red light runners monthly at only 13 intersections. Were ready to the next batch of 10. Are they on the High Injury Network . The cameras are in the sfmta budget. Walk San Francisco is asking the plan and implemented this year because we want to save lives. Im here today with my members to ask the sfmta board to continue to ask director tumlin for updates on the progress and they need to put engineering tools in place, gathering the data we need and prioritize the technology so Traffic Enforcement but theyll Work Together to reach those goals. Thank you so much. Thank you, next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. Next speaker, give us your name or Start Talking and your time will start. Hi, my name is steven bingeham im a member of walk sf and also the chapter families for safe streets. My daughter was killed in street violence 10 years ago biking to her new killed in exactly the same way as emily, killed biking to work by a box truck in San Francisco whose driver right hooked her at fulsome and 6th seven years ago. Im also a retired lawyer who worked 23 years in the San Francisco office of bay area legal aid. I want to apologize for speaking on item 11 but i looked at the transportation Recovery Plan and it doesnt address any of the issues which others and jody have just mentioned. The issues that walk sf is concerned with are not specific recovery issues and they were longstanding measures that urgently need to be addressed. Another speaker mentioned earlier, every two weeks someone is killed in San Francisco. 10 people are injured every week in traffic crashes and it goes on year after year and now with open streets, theres an increase in speeding so theres even more of i need for noturnonred policies, leftturn calming devices, daylighting and more to address these longstanding issues. Thank you. Our next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. If you can give us your name or Start Talking well talk your two minutes. Hi, thank you. Good afternoon sfmta directors and director tumlin. Thank you for allowing this opportunity for us to speak. My name is eric roseel and im a tenderloin resident and i work with the Tenderloin Community benefit district. I want to thank you for keeping our city streets safe during this challenging time. I am a survivor of a bicycle collision and spends 10 hours a week walking the streets of the tenderloin so i witnessed the dangers of our streets at firsthand. I ask the sfmta act urgely to end fatal traffic crashes here and throughout the city. I strongly suggest putting walk sfs recommendation changes into place now and additionally, i ds and at the last meeting there was discussion on creating a workshop to expedite the quick build or the street changes here in the tenderloin and i would like to get some followup as to what is being done to ensure that the efforts to improve in the tenderloin are being. Thank you, im finished. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. Next speaker, give us your name or Start Talking and well start your time. Go ahead. Hello, good afternoon. My name is ion jackson and im a transit operator for sfmta. Ive been driving for five years in San Francisco and i am very safety focused when im driving the transit and the vehicle through the cities and i firsthand get to witness a lot of things happening out on the streets. So from the perspective of me, myself, a transit operator, i would love to share some of my ideas that i have to improve safety for pedestrians and for drivers and for San Francisco and i would like to leave my email address and on my days off or before work, i would love to volunteer my time to share some of the ideas to improve safety. My email address is sftranc sftranceitsprofessional and i care about the safety of pedestrians and drivers and my other coworkers as well. Were all in this together and i just wanted to say thank you for your time and i hope someone can reach out to me so we can get off of this call i can discussion and share some of my ideas to improve safety. Thank you. Thank you so much for reaching out and we will be in touch. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. You have one question remaining. Speaker, give us your name or Start Talking. Im so grateful for your leadership and sfmta directors, i am Nancy Harrison and i live in the mission and i am a senior. I walk everywhere and i dont have a car. I was hit by a car in a sidewalk at 18th last year and the year before that my neighbor who is also a senior, was injured in a car crash at the same crosswalk. It was a car turning left on to 18th. I support walk San Franciscos recommendations to stop speeding and to address dangerous left and right turns. I thank you for the work that you have done to decrease fatalities and injuries and i want to emphasize black and brown people essential workers, unhoused folks and seniors rely on your services and actions to help us survive traffic. As you know covid19, there are lines of people daily at food banks needing to transport large bags of food walking on the streets and people need to get to work and your immediate action is needed now more than ever. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any additional Public Commenters for general Public Comment . You have zero questions remaining. Seeing none, Public Comment will be closed. Moderator, please, close the lines. All right. Madam chair, unless theres anything from the board, i will move on to the consent calender. Please. Were going to be is everything 10. 3. Yes, madam chair. So consent calender, item 10. 1 resolves various claims against the sfmta including 10. 2, amend the transportation code to establish sf Police Department vehicle only parking restrictions in front of the Police Department specializations center and approving a sparking restriction that will enact that and that is the remainder of your consent calender. If youd like to open Public Comment for any member of the public who may wish to sever or discuss any of the items. Well open for Public Comment on items 10. 1 or 10. 2. By opening opening the comment, if you would like us to offer it from this agenda but this is the time to comment. Madam chair, if you would like the caller to address item 10. 3 at this time, that would also be an appropriate thing. Ok. And i guess if the caller wants to address this item 10. 3, i guess we wouldnt be called into the record at this moment but does that matter . I can call it into the record and right now and then take Public Comment on any item right at this moment. Ok. Thats fine. 10. 3 a proves amendment 6 contract c f1 52 and architect actual Engineering Services for the final design and essential subway design group through completion of the project increasing the contract amount by making Environmental Review findings. So this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on any consent calender item. The moderator will open the phone lines and will let us know if there are people online. Your conference is now in question and answer mode. To summon each question, press one then zero. Members of the public who wish to address the board please dial the number now. You have three questions remaining. Great. First speaker, please. Can you hear me now . Yes. Go ahead. Its david again. Regarding item 10. 3 on the central subway i reviewed the staff report, which indicates that substantial completion of the construction element to the project is expected by the end of calender year 2020. Whats not clear in the staff report is how long testing and training is anticipated to take and when the current initial operating date is so, im hoping that one of you can ask the director that question or that i can get a followup answer from staff. I would like to know what the current projected scheduling opening date of the central subway project is. Thank you, very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Please give us your name and or Start Talking. Hi. My name is adam at the palms on 555 4th street. The reason i wanted to speak on this is because our building is uniquely impacted by the central subway project yet all the of the design and environmental approvals to date have ignored the impact on the buildings and our front door goes up to it and we are on the block between bryant and brennan and the impact also effects the blocks out to the street which the city currently has zoned at designated as three lanes, two lanes of traffic and one lane of parking and its only wide enough for two lanes. If this amendment is going to pass i would ask the board to please ensure that any design supports for the sun way, any Environmental Review and anything included in this does take into account these traffic impact of pushing traffic off of brian street and off of Fourth Street on to zoe, which is not designed to handle the traffic. Zoe is large enough for a five truck to approach our building, which houses, 300 residential units and two retail units. Were excited to see the subway project move forward but we have cars driving up on the sidewalks outside our house because these streets are not wide enough to handle the traffic. We previously lost the only handicap parking because the board did not take into account the impacts on our building. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have one question remaining. In regards to items 10. 3, this is Hayden Miller, i just wanted to say that it seems confusing we keep dumping more and more money into this central subway project and i understand that its going to be great when it opens but we dont know when it will open. I couldnt tell you what the opening day is projected to be. Weve missed so many dead lines it seems like why are we dumping so much money into this thing and we still dont know when it will open. It was supposed to open in 2019 and now were in 2020. I think it was 2018 this was supposed to open so there needs to be more accountability and ive asked for the return of videos showing progress, anything thats going to help show the progress and when it really will open. Thank you. Thank you. Does that conclude our Public Commenter. Let us know. Madam chair. Are there any other speakers . You have zero questions remaining. That concludes Public Comment on all of your consent calender and you are free to take amount on all of it. Lets have the director address some of the items related to the consent calender the central subway project. As you see, the substantial completion date is the end of this calender year and were expecting service to be operational in late 2021 and the actual date varies depending on the final details of when were going to Start Testing and it might be possible before substantial completion. Where can people find updates for the project . That was one of the questions . If its for the project its the project website. Its on the project website theres a section and were behind because of covid19 so the last formal updates is from february but you can see the details updates in this Community Advisory group and theres a place to go on the website to get regular email updates. Are there any other questions or comments about item number 3 or desire to officer the other item at this point . Seeing none. I will entertain a motion for the consent calender. Motion to approve. Is there a second. All in favor. [roll call] thank you. That passes. Moving on to your regular calender. Madam chair, before i read the items just for members of the public who may be watching this meeting by sfgtv, please, if you wish to address the board call 8888086929 and 9961164 and 10 when the phone line is open so you will be in line and ready to go when the chair calls for Public Comment. Madam chair directors, presentation and discussion regarding the transportation and Recovery Plan including Transit Service and street Recovery Planning commercial districts and managing demand for travel. Thank you, take it away. We can go into our presentation mode. Go to the first slide. So, at our last board meeting, we presented the knowledge that while evaporated during shelter in place it was rapidly coming back and you asked us for some recommendations about bold actions in order to keep the economy open and moving and address the changes that are upon us over the next couple of months. So, unsurprisingly, last tuesday, marked the return of reoccurring congestion and this is 19th avenue and this looks familiar but this is the first time weve seen congestion since shelter in place started. And this is happening not just in San Francisco but all over the region this is google traffic map of 5 00 p. M. On tuesday. Showing healing from the regional Transportation System the orange lanes are where Traffic Volumes have equaled the roroy capacity. The red and dark colors are where Traffic Volume has exceeded the capacity of the roadway. These are all the nodes where theres capacity constraint in the regional roadway system basically this is where congestion starts and then it spreads to clog up the entire system. This map has since gotten worse. It was worse on wednesday and worse on thursday with every single major regional highway congested because the economy is about 10 open. As we look at one of the most important capacity constraint points for San Francisco, its the bay bridge in the eastbound and westbound direction and this is volumes at the toll plaza. You can see theyre right in late march, where the shelter in place order occurred in the orange lines and a significant but not huge drop off in Traffic Volumes and this is important to understand. Because many people dont really quite understand the geometry of Traffic Congestion. Traffic congestion exists on a 10 margin. A roadway that is flowing freely and need only add about 10 more Traffic Volume in order to reach severe congestion. You can see the drop off in traffic was a 30 drop in traffic, not a 80 drop in traffic, yet for femal people fr riding the bus the difference was stark. We since have seen this steady uptick and what you are seeing in the orange line is that 10 difference between traffic moving and is the peak of the peak versus the usual complete gridlock on the bridge that we saw back in february. Next slide, please. And so, were very concerned that as people understandably retreat from Public Transit to their private cars out of a sense of security or safety. Perfectly understandable move. The problem is the roy system cannot accommodate anymore vehicle traffic than it did last week. This is true at the regional level and this is true on the soma grid, which saw significant congestion, enough to delay our critical muni bus lines starting last week and continuing into this week. Without mobility, there can be no recovery. Right now the economy is 10 open and we maxed out the ability of the roadway system to move people. In order to allow the economy to continue to open, we have to find a way for the most spacey efficient modes of transportation, walking, biking, wheelchairing, scooterring, all the forms of micro mobility and Public Transit in order to work and not be stuck in Traffic Congestion. Thats what were here today to discuss. Weve known about this. Weve known about this problem for quite some time. We knew about this from the beginning and i had been projecting august as the return of severe congestion, people didnt believe me and it turns out i was wrong. Because its june. Its the return of severe congestion and not august. The traffic analysis and vulnerabilities analysis that have been done, across the nation, including by Work Research group is already pointed out just how vulnerable the San Francisco bay area is because of its previous high use of Public Transit and also the automobile dependen see of and were going to have to find a very different way of doing things and or well be stuck strangled in Traffic Congestion without business allowed to return. Next slide. So, this presentation is about our transportation Recovery Plan which really covers all of our lines of business and our planned leader, dan howard, will present that whole plan to you. And it focuses on a whole bunch of different objectives all at the same time. The most important set of objectives are about protecting the health and safety of our workforce and the public and that is paramount and covid19 creates some interesting challenges for us to make the Mobility System work and protecting the health of the problem anpublic and our operat. At the same time, weve got to fulfill the Transportation Systems primary function of supporting the economy and that is the job we do. We make it possible for people to get to work and school and get access to essential services to support small businesses. If were already capped out, if there are limits in place on our ability to do that on Public Transit, to invest very boldly and make some really tough decisions that will entail really difficult trade offs. So, lets go onto the next slide. Were not alone. Were watching cities all over the world confronting the same phenomenon. Were inspired by our neighbors over in oakland, around their slow Streets Program. Weve been inspired by pretty much all the global capitals. Weve been particularly inspired by the work the east asian communities have done in finding ways of mitigating the spread of the virus that dont rely on social distance and Public Transit but instead rely on other techniques and well talk to you about that later. Were knowing that in addition to dealing with the economy and covid19 in this time, we also have to be reminded of our key values of equity, of prioritizing the most Vulnerable People and people with the fewest choices, our priorities around safety, and our priorities around decarbonization. In addition to dealing with the immediate crisis, this is also an opportunity for us to deliver the city that we actually want in the constitute. Next slide. So, you asked us to be bold. And while the plan that we have is bold, theres not a lot that is new in our plan. We have done a lot here in San Francisco. Weve made some really hard trade offs in the past. This is powell street which used to have cars and cable cars